The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and, in particular, relates to the semiconductor device having, for example, a function of detecting abnormal leakage current.
Generation of the abnormal leakage current between a power supply voltage source and a ground voltage source leads to occurrence of a fault in the semiconductor device and eventually leads to occurrence of stop and malfunction of a system. As causes for generation of the abnormal leakage current, destruction of a gate insulating film, a gate-to-contact short-circuit, destruction of an interlayer film between wirings and so forth may be given.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-281736, there is a description that the magnitude of current that has been increased due to the destruction of the gate insulating film is detected from a difference in potential between both ends of a resistance element that is installed on a power current supply path in order to detect the fault in the semiconductor device.